When do I become old? When did my music become old?

I have a niece I text every now and then. She likes to talk about music and who she listens to. Always someone trendy and sexy.

She asked me who I was listening to. I said "Talking heads"

"Who?"

"You know, Burning Down the House, Psycho Killer."

"Ok. Never heard of them but job uncle."

Sigh. These songs aren't really that lost and forgotten, are they?

On the hummingbird photos-- it took several days and over one hundred pictures to capture the six I posted. Hummingbirds *are* flighty and fast creatures. The good photos took as much luck as anything else.

The husband's step-niece, SS, spent the weekend with us.  SS is lovely. She likes to be engaged in conversation alot. I almost wrote that she talks a lot, but that's wrong. She spends a fair amount of time asking deep questions... getting to know you. That makes the whole experience that much more tiring for me. I need social downtime. 

We had a good tour of Seattle. We saw the sights, walked the walks and ate too much.

The husband and SS spent much time discussing being adult children of alcoholics. This is complicated. Some of their past history is harrowing. 

The camera is setup on my desk and pointed out the window at the hummingbird feeder. I've taken hundreds of pictures over the past week. These are the few that turned out.

The Rufous is orange. The Anna is green. They will occasionally duke it out. I'd love to capture that. 

I can't tell if there is more than one rufous. Is the rufus in the first photo the same as the rufous in the last?

It's been a tough week at work. Our company was hacked. It's made the news. Seven people in the UK have been arrested as a result. Our company is a little tone-deaf in the public handling of the issue.

Fortunately my division was not part of the hack. Just sitting in a front row seat, watching it all happen. As a middle manager, I must project a positive and forward looking attitude to all of this. That can be tough.

I love that the husband keeps in touch with so many people. I have hermit tendencies. Left to my own devices I stay at home. I enjoy the solitude. I also enjoy the husband bringing people in to my life.

We had a few of the husband's oldest friends over for dinner. My husband went to grade school with M&M (who are sisters) back where he grew up in the south. Years later one of the sisters moved to Seattle. The husband and she have kept up their friendship ever since.

For the third year now, we have a rufous hummingbird in our back yard. I first noticed Rufous at the start of the pandemic. The window in my home-office looks out at our hummingbird feeder.

Rufous can live to be eight years old, so this could be the same one.

I threw out our old hummingbird feeders and purchased new ones. The old ones were fading. My theory is that the hummingbirds are attracted to bright colors. As old feeders fade, they should be replaced. 

Or repainted? Googling around, I see that some people repaint their older feeders to help attract hummingbirds.

The mask ordinance is over in our county. People may optionally mask. There's no requirement to do so.

It feels a little dirty to be in a store without a mask. About half the people in the grocery store were without a mask. 90% or more In the hardware store

Many people are still masking in restaurants.  This is weird as you only wear your mask from the front desk to your table. I would've thought that masks would go quickly in restaurants.

Through the pandemic I have not had a cold or a flu or a sore throat. These inconveniences are the price to pay for going maskless.

We are back. I enjoyed our ski trip to Park City. 

Park City has an elevation of about 7000 feet above sea level. The air is noticeably more thin. My pulse goes up a good 10%. You can get winded with ordinary walking. 

I had my annual physical exam today. It went well.  My cholesterol is almost at the level where the Dr. would like me to go on medication, but not just yet. I've got another year to get it down.

We are in Park City for a few days. Today the weather was wonderful. Spring conditions. 

our old friend Bayley is here with us. Things are going well with her. 

Errands over the weekend. Saturday I had breakfast with C2 and picked up my snowboard bindings from the ski shop. Wednesday we are heading down to Park City Utah for a few days of fun on the hills. I think we now have everything we need for the trip.

Lunch Saturday with the Mother-in-law. She had many opinions because of the Ukrainian crisis. I do my best to not engage her on politics, though she is more interested in blame and finger pointing that discussing what should be done.

Sunday evening we had the Allen and Evan over for games and dinner. 

Lately, I've been feeling a little like I've been in a rut. Not depressed but a little blue. C2 and I were discussing this over breakfast. He is in a similar situation. A little blue yet we are both well off. We are both financially secure and have great places to live. 

No path forward other than "Suck it up butter cup."

Yesterday I binge watched season 4 of The Good Place, and the last season of Rick and Morty. Maybe I have a short attention span. 

The last episode of the Good Place was very sweet.

Tonight I'm listening to music and writing a little. I'm  want to stay away from TV and the social media. This is hard. Some how, every time I try to purge work-email, I end up flipping over to Facebook and Twitter.

Weekend was good. Friday we saw the Seattle Symphony with Troupe Vertigo. Basically, classical music with acrobats. Fun.

Sunday we had dinner at the mother-in-laws. 

Monday, the husband left for Atlanta for work for a week. I relaxed yesterday. I intended on doing a few personal projects. Mostly I binge watched TV. In the evening I had dinner with C2. 

C2 has finished his move to the Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle. We dropped by, saw his place and had dinner with him.

When I moved to Seattle almost twenty five years ago it was Seattle's gay neighborhood. It had many gay bars. Buildings were older and not always well maintained. 

I haven't been to Capital Hill in years. Between the pandemic, the black-lives-matter protests, living in the outer suburbs, and my relationships, there never was a reason to visit.

Now C2 lives there. And I see that Capital is really hopping! Gentrified. Half of the older building have been replaced by condos. The existing older buildings frequently host nice clubs, restaurants and shops. The streets are busy. Lots of people walking around and enjoying themselves.

Kudos to Seattle. 

My knee is almost back to normal. I can walk up and down stairs just fine. I still feel pain in my knee when I kick something with side of my foot.

It's been a social weekend. Thursday we had dinner with my old boss and his wife. After he left our old company, he opened up a cruise ship center. And then COVID hit. Business is slow. He has used COVID as an opportunity to buy up other cruise ship centers in that franchise. Good for him, though he is much more of a risk taker than I.

Saturday we brought the mother-in-law out to a nice dinner on the waterfront. She hasn't been away from her retirement home in a while. She appreciated the change.

Sunday we had dinner with Yo and the Angel. They are moving the Angel's mother to Seattle, so we discussed all the logistics that we had to go through. Shutting down the mother's house-- finding a place in Seattle-- correcting all the paper work, the insurance. Overall, moving the Angel's mother to Seattle is a good idea for them.

 > I regret not learning to ski when I was younger. I've only gone once in my life. Now, I have decided the experience would not be worth the pain of learning. But a hot tub and a cabin would be fun.

There is wisdom in that. I enjoy snowboarding. It's an expensive hobby and you spend the first year falling alot. 

This past weekend was the husband's birthday.  The two of us, plus three friends rented a cabin in the mounts and went skiing for a couple of days.

And yes, it wasn't good for my struggling knee.

Also, my binding broke and I spent too much time finding alternate gear.

But, we ate well at night. And the birthday was much fun.

The husband and I have started working on our wills. Most of our will is straight forward-- if I die my possessions go to him. He makes my health care decisions if I am unable to respond.

And he me should the situation is reversed.

What if we are both not dead, but can't respond? What if we are both in comas? The lawyer asked us to think that through. 

After a few days of contemplating, I asked C2 if he would handle my health care directive if the husband was not able. 

I asked "Could you pull the plug on me?"

He responded "Oh yeah. I'd want the same."

That's what friends are for.

We went snowboarding Thursday night. And I hurt my knee. For now I'm just icing it, and keeping weight off of it.

The husband and I both bought new skis and snowboards. So we have been trying to hit the hills. Last Sunday we drove to a local ski hill with C6. That ski hill had a large power outage just before we arrived. Power wasn't returned till the next morning.

Later today we are going to try night skiing. The weather looks bad. We shall see.

We had dinner with C2 last night. C2 has spent the last week moving into his new apartment and visiting his father in hospice. C2 is frustrated with his father's inability to die. C2's father just lays there like a vegetable. He eats every 2nd day or so. He defecates. That's it. No communication. He's not on life support. He's not on life sustaining medications. He just lays there.

When I think about my future, my end-of-life, I always assume I'm going to be able to talk until I die-- to communicate my wishes. If I turned into a vegetable, at some point I'd hope someone would give me end-of-life medications. Will doctors allow that? Our state allows assisted suicide. However, you must be awake and able to communicate. You must take the drugs yourself while an independent doctor watches. This is a complication for vegetables.

I need diet and exercise discipline that I don't abandon when we travel. At home I have no problems eating healthy, running and lifting weights regularly. 

When I travel... Exercise? Why? I'll catch up when I'm home. Dessert! Yes! Sure I'll take seconds. Oh, you want to get rid of the box of chocolates? Let me help!